


A Little Bit Different

by Descendant_of_Truth



Category: Wander Over Yonder (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Just a couple of chaotic neutrals doing their chaotic neutral thing, Maybe some others too but I haven't decided yet, Sylvia is still a bounty hunter and is also not willing to put up with this crap, The idea is that this is going to be slow-burn but I don't know how long it'll be, Wander is too tired and anxious to put up with this crap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 08:11:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14890823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Descendant_of_Truth/pseuds/Descendant_of_Truth
Summary: In another world, Wander isn't nearly as friendly as we all know him to be. He doesn't think to help others much at all, instead causing chaos wherever he goes--whether he's trying to or not. Word gets out about the damage he causes and a bounty gets placed on him, which is where Sylvia comes into the scene.Everyone knows that Wander was such a positive influence on Sylvia that she left her life of bounty hunting behind, but with a Wander who's not as pure as we remember, how will their relationship develop instead?





	A Little Bit Different

Sylvia went into this mission knowing three things about her target: that he was crafty, dangerous, and looked completely unassuming. No one knew what his name was or where he was from, only that he had shown up on multiple planets and caused a couple hundred thousand credits worth of property damage. That, and he was nearly impossible to catch.

That being said, the fact that he had somehow been caught by a robot before she could get to him drove her nuts. It wasn't even a particularly strong robot; not compared to her, anyway. Not many things were, but she was expecting slightly more of a challenge from something that managed to catch the uncatchable.

Still, when the bag containing her target fell to the ground with a satisfying plop, she wasn't exactly complaining. She untied the bag just enough to be 100% sure that this was really her target (although she didn't have much doubt about it) only for a hat to poke out of it. And, soon enough, the rest of the target's head followed.  
He was just as fluffy as the wanted poster made him out to be, and he looked dead tired to boot. He looked up at Sylvia with half-lidded eyes and his expression showed more annoyance than anything else.

"Could'ya keep it down with all that racket? Some people are trying to get some sleep over here," he complained, his accented voice creaking slightly from lack of use. Sylvia almost couldn't believe what she was witnessing: someone told to be so unstoppable in his rampage was simply captured in his sleep? It was like the universe was trying to make this easy for her.

Well, hopefully that luck would last and the strange little creature was still too tired to resist being captured a second time. She flung the sack over her shoulder with ease, the target making a small grunt that sounded an awful lot like "rude," but otherwise made no effort to free himself. Good.

"You can sleep all you want on your way to prison, you wandering weirdo," she huffed, not really caring for conversation but unable to resist a remark.

"'Wander'... huh," the creature commented before breaking into a yawn. "That sounds nice... don'tcha think?"

Sylvia wasn't sure what he was rambling on about, but the question was clearly rhetorical since he started snoring softly almost immediately afterwards. It was starting to become hard to believe that this was the guy causing so much damage wherever he went, but hey, easy money was easy money, right?

That was, until she made it back to her ship and started taking off. It must have been the sound of the engine or something, because the creature suddenly bolted up in his sack (that she had stupidly left loosely tied so his head still poked out), eyes wide open with panic.

"Wait a second--prison?!" he shrieked. Sylvia immediately responded with a face-palm.

"Yes, prison! I said that, like, an hour ago!" she replied, frustration clear in her voice. The creature lept out of the sack with a slight stumble before rushing up to her, waving his arms around frantically.

"I can't go to jail!" he exclaimed. His expression quickly switched to thoughtful and back to panicked again as he continued, "Well, technically, I could, certainly wouldn't be the first time--but I'm not gonna! They got walls in prisons, really close walls, and then they try to keep you in them and I'm not gonna deal with that, who says I can deal with that?!"

He had been frantically scrambling this way and that as he spoke, and it was starting to get really annoying. Why didn't she tie up the sack properly like a sensible person? And where was he getting all this energy from? He was sleeping so soundly just moments before. Sylvia quickly decided she liked him better that way.

"Listen," she snapped, stopping the creature in place with her hand, "I don't care if you feel like going or not, you're in my ship and as far as I'm concerned, that means you've already lost. So shut your yap and deal with it!"

The creature looked annoyed now, his orange fur ruffling at her harsh tone and returning her glare with equal defiance. Without breaking eye contact, he pushed her arm away almost effortlessly and reached into his hat. Sylvia instinctively got into a fighting position (thank goodness her ship had autopilot on), thinking he was about to pull some kind of weapon out of it.

Instead, he pulled out... a banjo.

Sylvia blinked. How did he even fit a banjo into that thing? And was he seriously about to start playing a song?

Just when she thought her target was weird enough already, he flipped the banjo upside-down, turned on his heel, and catapulted it into the nearest window with a resounding crash. The banjo simply fell to the ground, snapped in the center while the window remained relatively undamaged.

"...What," was all she was able to say. The creature looked stumped, but it was nothing compared to Sylvia's own expression.

"Well, I'll admit," the creature said, breaking the brief silence, "I've had better plans." With that, he casually walked over to his broken banjo and snapped it back together, with no apparent signs that it had ever been damaged. Sylvia was becoming more confused by this creature with each passing second and she wasn't sure how to feel about it.

She could have sworn she heard him chuckling for a moment before his expression switched to a large grin. He readied his fixed banjo into a proper playing position and turned his attention back to the window. "Like this one!" he exclaimed, finishing his thought from before. Sylvia had no idea what to expect from this guy anymore, but it seemed safe to assume that he was actually going to start playing a song.

There wasn't much time to wonder how that would be a better plan than throwing it across the room before he started playing a quick-paced tune and the end of the banjo started glowing. That was when Sylvia decided she'd had enough of this target messing around in her ship. She charged at him with every intention of forcing him back into his sack as violently as she had to to get him to stop being such a nuisance.

And then the window exploded.

Some kind of beam had been shot out of the creature's banjo and instantly shattered the window leading to the cold vacuum of space, and with nothing to grab onto, they were both sucked right into it. Sylvia barely had a second to fear for her life, to think that there was no way this was how it was going to end for her, before oxygen and warm air abruptly returned to her once more.

What happened? She could still see her ship, growing more distant by the second, but there was no way she was in a different ship; the ground, such as it were, felt oddly rubbery. And everything around her was tinted a light shade of blue. Everything felt very surreal all of a sudden.

The gentle strum of a banjo snapped her back to her senses. She bolted into a standing position and turned around to see the creature happily walking along. It took a bit more looking around to realize exactly what was going on; they were in a bubble. A giant, actual bubble.

Right, orbubbles. She had heard of them, but never used one for herself. They weren't exactly the most convenient method of travel, after all. They had no weapons, nothing to hold food or water. She didn't think they were meant for long trips through space.

Was this seriously the whackjob's 'better plan?' She had been getting increasingly frustrated with this creature for the past several minutes and she didn't think she could hold it back anymore. So she didn't.

"Okay, what is your problem?!" Sylvia demanded.

"You think I only have one--?"

"Don't get smart with me!" she interrupted. "You fall asleep while you're being captured, pull a banjo out of your hat that's actually some kind of weapon, and your only plan to escape is by orbubble?! And...!" she trailed off as something new occurred to her. "...and you were stupid enough to save your captor, too. The second we make it to a planet, you're gonna have an awfully hard time shaking me off, pal."

The creature came to a stop, and so did his banjo playing. He let out a short sigh before turning around to look up at Sylvia, his expression portraying only mild annoyance.

"I was tired, first of all, and it's not a weapon, it's a banjo. There's a difference," he countered. Sylvia opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted before she could. "And orbubbles are perfectly functional, thank you very much. I'd call it one of my better plans, honestly." With that, he turned back around and resumed his song and aimless walking. Sylvia followed, if only because it felt awkward to somehow move with the bubble while standing still.

"That doesn't explain why you brought me into it, but whatever. Face it, this really doesn't work in your favor," Sylvia pointed out. She wasn't exactly complaining, but it was annoying to see someone who seemed so confident in his actions ignore the crucial flaw in his logic. If he wanted to escape her so bad, then he could have just as easily left her behind.

"...I don't have to keep sharing this bubble with you, y'know," he pointed out. The way he hesitated made Sylvia wonder if he was going to say something else at first. "If I really wanted to, I could kick you out and it'll split into a smaller one for ya, anyway."

"Then why don't you?" Sylvia emphasized, wondering how someone could spell out simple logic and then not go through with it. "And that wasn't even an explanation!" she added.

"Well I can't have all the answers, now can I?!" he retorted. Before their argument could continue, the creature's eyes lit up when he caught sight of a planet in the distance. "Now would'ya look at that! I haven't been there before! Oh, this is gonna be so much fun!"

He erupted into delighted laughter, breaking into a run so suddenly that the orbubble split between the two of them. Sylvia followed almost immediately.

"Hey! Don't you go wandering off on me! I still have to capture you and collect my bounty!" she yelled.

"The more you say that, the more it's gonna stick around!" the creature shouted back in a sing-song voice.

"What are you talking about?! What do I keep saying?!" Sylvia demanded, genuinely confused as to what the fuzzball was going on about.

"'Wander!'" he elaborated. His joyous laughter continued as he said that. "It really does sound nice, doesn't it?!"

Sylvia decided it was best not to wonder what the creature was talking about. She focused instead on chasing him into the planet's atmosphere.

**Author's Note:**

> The way this version of Wander dodges questions is entertaining but also so frustrating because I just want him to talk about his feelings, okay. At least I'll get to write things from his perspective, too. So even if he doesn't say his feelings, we can still figure out what's going on in that tired brain of his.
> 
> Please be sure to leave a comment down below! Feedback means a lot to me as a writer, and I would love to know what people think of my story!


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